


A Brand New Bed of Roses

by Small_Hobbit



Category: Inspector Robert MacDonald - E C R Lorac
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-24
Updated: 2021-01-24
Packaged: 2021-03-16 19:16:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 813
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28961577
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Small_Hobbit/pseuds/Small_Hobbit
Summary: Called in by the local police force Chief Inspector MacDonald grows suspicious when he goes to interview a witness.
Kudos: 2





	A Brand New Bed of Roses

**Author's Note:**

> Written for DW's Ficlet_Zone, Charley Pride Song Titles Challenge

Chief Inspector MacDonald walked up the path and knocked on the cottage door.

A man in late middle age opened it and said, “Yes, how can I help you?”

“Good afternoon, Mr Reynolds, my name is MacDonald, and I am with the Metropolitan Police. The local police force has asked me to come down and help with their enquiries into the missing women in the village. May I come in and talk to you? I understand your wife is one of those who has disappeared.”

“Yes, if you must. Although I told Sergeant Stone everything I could.”

Reynolds stood back, and MacDonald entered, smiling pleasantly. “I realise that. But it does help me to get a better feel for a case if I am able to meet those most directly involved.”

“Yes, all right. Come this way.”

Reynolds led the way through to a dining room, which looked out into the garden through open French windows. He went to shut the windows, but MacDonald stopped him.

“Do leave them open. It’s such a beautiful day, it seems a shame to shut it out. Although we’ve been lucky this year with the weather.”

“Indeed. Well, inspector, what would you like to know?”

MacDonald asked the usual questions, and, once he was satisfied Reynolds had told him all he was prepared to say, he stood up to leave. “That’s a lovely bed of roses you’ve got there.”

Reynolds sighed. “Roses are my wife’s favourite flower. She was looking forward to seeing them in bloom.”

“Yes. And that’s a very solid fence you’ve got behind them.”

“It’s to keep the deer out. I don’t want them eating the roses.”

“No, very wise. Thank you very much, Mr Reynolds. You have been most helpful.”

MacDonald left and drove to the railways station, where he was due to pick up Inspector Reeves. As he watched Reeves exit the station, he could see the man was very pleased with himself.

MacDonald waited until Reeves got into the car before saying, “So, Pete, what have you got to tell me?”

“We’ve tracked down Marian Winters, the first missing woman.”

“That’s good news, but there’s more, isn’t there?”

“Oh yes. I went to interview her and took a WPC with me. She was reluctant to talk at first, it turns out Winter had been beating her on a regular basis and she didn’t want to go back to him.”

“Yes, that’s what the local police said. They thought she might have done a runner for that reason, which is why no-one was too bothered when she disappeared until Enid Reynolds also went missing.”

“Anyway, she said she’d been given a large amount of cash by a man who told her to take it and leave at once; not to go home or say anything to anyone. Most people would have been suspicious, but Marian Winters was desperate and did as she was told.”

“And stayed silent because she’d been conditioned to do so,” MacDonald said. “That makes sense. How did you get her to reveal the name of her benefactor, since I’m assuming she did?”

“The poor woman is terrified of practically everything and was keen that we didn’t accuse her of doing anything illegal. We said if she told us who’d given her the money, we could check it out.”

“And?” MacDonald sighed. “You are doing nothing for my blood pressure stringing me along like this.”

Reeves chuckled. “The money was from Reynolds. He may deny it, but I don’t think she’s making it up. My only worry is that if we have to put Marian Winters into the witness box she’ll go to pieces.”

“I have a feeling that won’t be necessary. I have a plan, although it will involve a night-time excursion if you’re up to it.”

***

That night MacDonald and Reeves silently approached the back of Reynold’s cottage. Cautiously, they climbed over the fence and then crept across the garden to the rose bed, where they began to dig.

It wasn’t long before Reeves stopped and touched MacDonald’s shoulder before indicating what he had uncovered. Four fingers of a woman’s hand were just visible beneath the soil. MacDonald nodded and indicated they should leave.

Once they were back over the fence, MacDonald said, “We’ll get a watch put on Reynolds tonight, make sure he doesn’t do a moonlight flit, and then the local force can dig the body up in the morning.”

“It’s a shame about the roses,” Reeves replied. “It won’t do them any good to be dug up again.”

“They were never going to come to anything anyway. Nobody transplants roses at the end of the spring, it’s a job for early spring or late autumn.”

“So it wasn’t just the deer-proof fence, when there were no signs of any deer, which made you suspicious.”

“No, the first thing was the freshly dug rose bed.”


End file.
